Evoking images of lilacs, hyacinth and GameCubes, Nintendo's Midnight Purple 3DS launches on May 20 in North America, giving fans another way to "customize the look of their systems".

Nintendo's official announcement of this new Midnight Purple color scheme, joining red, blue, black, and pink on the market just in time for Mario Tennis Open, heralds it as "another option to customize the look of their systems to suit their individual styles and personalities". Having previously traded in Nintendo handhelds at my local retailer in order to secure a different color I'm not condemning the practice. Calling it customization just seems like a bit of a stretch. That's like customizing your car by buying the same model in a different color.